Building a Govtech Platform through strategic origination
Omni Partners identified a significant opportunity to consolidate the highly fragmented UK Govtech software market through a focused buy-and-build strategy. Having successfully built and scaled technology businesses previously, the team recognised that creating a market-leading platform would require more than simply completing acquisitions. Success would depend upon identifying founder-led software businesses whose products, customers and expertise would collectively create a broader, more valuable technology group.
To support this strategy, Omni partnered with WTA Partners. The relationship leveraged WTA’s long-standing track record in the sector. Over many years, WTA had advised founders, strategic acquirers and investors across the public sector software market and had previously worked alongside Civica during one of the UK’s most successful acquisition programmes, supporting the origination of ten strategic software acquisitions over a four-year period.
This experience provided WTA with deep sector expertise, extensive founder relationships and a detailed understanding of the fragmented Govtech landscape. WTA’s proven ability to identify aligned businesses and engage founders made them the natural strategic origination partner for Omni, supported by existing working relationships with Wayne Story, former Chief Executive of Civica and Partner at Omni.
At a glance
Client: Omni Partners
Platform: Infoshare+
Sector focus: UK Govtech and Public Sector Software
Objective: Follow a buy-and-build strategy to consolidate the fragmented UK Govtech market and create a market-leading Platform
WTA role: Advisory on sector mapping, target identification, and founder relationship development
Key Capabilities added:
- Public sector software
- Data governance and intelligence
- Fraud prevention and revenue optimisation
- Social housing software and systems integration
- AI-enabled citizen engagement
- Workflow automation
Overview
Laying the cornerstone
WTA’s involvement began with originating Infoshare, the cornerstone asset for the platform. With a trusted position in local government, strong recurring software revenues, and robust data governance capabilities, Infoshare provided the ideal foundation.
Executing the Buy-and-Build Strategy
The continued development of Infoshare+ combined Omni’s own origination activities with WTA’s specialist expertise in market mapping, founder engagement and proprietary deal origination.
Working collaboratively, opportunities were identified across the fragmented Govtech market, with each potential acquisition assessed against a clear strategic objective: strengthening the platform through complementary technology, enhanced customer value and deeper sector capability.
Strategic Acquisitions
Rather than pursuing acquisitions simply to increase scale, the focus remained on identifying businesses that would reinforce the long-term strategic vision for the platform.
Infoshare – creating the platform: The acquisition of Infoshare – a sell-side transaction conducted by WTA Partners – established the foundation upon which the wider platform would be built. Its trusted data governance capabilities, long-standing public sector relationships and recurring software revenues created an ideal starting point for a broader Govtech platform.
Datatank – expanding data intelligence: WTA identified Datatank as a highly complementary addition to the platform, strengthening its capabilities in fraud detection, revenue assurance and data intelligence.
The business significantly enhanced the value proposition for local authorities by providing advanced analytical capabilities that support revenue optimisation and fraud prevention within increasingly constrained public sector budgets.
Manifest Software Solutions – broadening sector capability: Recognising the strategic importance of the social housing sector, WTA introduced Manifest Software Solutions as an opportunity to expand the platform’s capabilities into an adjacent Govtech vertical.
Manifest brought deep Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce integration expertise, resident engagement solutions and long-established relationships with UK housing providers, significantly extending the platform’s reach within the public sector.
Barbour Logic – adding AI-driven citizen engagement: As artificial intelligence became an increasingly important component of public sector digital transformation, WTA identified Barbour Logic as an opportunity to introduce market-leading AI-enabled citizen engagement capabilities.
Its proprietary Parking Brain platform strengthened Infoshare+’s position in workflow automation, correspondence management and intelligent citizen communications, further enhancing the platform’s technology offering.
WTA’s Role
Throughout the development of Infoshare+, WTA acted as a proactive origination partner rather than a transactional advisor, creating conditions where founders recognised the long-term value of joining a unified platform. Key contributions included:
- Landscape Mapping: Continuously analysing the UK Govtech software ecosystem to spot emerging verticals.
- Founder Engagement: Building trusted, direct relationships with owner-managers outside competitive sale processes.
- Strategic Positioning: Articulating a clear value proposition for merging with the Infoshare+ platform.
- Execution Support: Facilitating transactions that directly reinforced the group’s long-term scale and capability.
Outcome
Today, Infoshare+ is one of the UK’s premier Govtech software platforms. It delivers an integrated suite of solutions serving local authorities, housing providers, and public sector organisations across data governance, revenue optimisation, social housing systems, AI citizen engagement, and workflow automation.
WTA continues to work alongside Omni’s team, collaboratively identifying and originating further strategic opportunities to expand and develop the platform.
This journey exemplifies WTA’s approach to technology M&A: combining deep sector insight, trusted founder relationships, and strategic market mapping to help investors build differentiated, market-leading platforms. Our role is not simply to identify businesses that may be available for sale. It is to understand markets, engage with founders, recognise strategic alignment, and help create opportunities that accelerate the growth of exceptional technology businesses.